At present I have just finished serving dinner to my kids and have gotten the dishes all lined up with a batch already soaking in the soapy water. My oldest son wants popcorn, since our middle son already has some. Our youngest just wants to snack on Apple Jacks cereal. My wife is at Bible Study and I am taking a moment to write something in this blog, seeing as I haven't done that for quite a long time. This is a typical Monday night around our house, other than me making an entry in this blog. Outside a storm is really brewing. Thunder, lightening, gusting winds and rain. Very cool!! Our family loves storms, even though we know they can do damage and change people's lives in a split second. What always amazes me in the midst of a raging storm like this is the fact that God is still there. A scripture comes to mind. The one where the storm comes whipping across the lake while Jesus and the disciples are in a boat. I don't know if you have ever been out on the water when a storm starts brewing, but it can get quite concerning. Last summer, my friend Tim was down visiting and we were out on the lake doing some catfishing. After a couple hours went by, we could see lightening way off in the distance. It slowly made it's way over to us and we finally decided, we better make the move to pack it in quickly. So, back to Jesus and the disciples in the boat being rocked by a storm. What is so interesting about the scene, is that the disciples must have watched this storm come rolling in from a distance. All the while, Jesus is taking a nap. All of a sudden the storm is raging... the disciples are FREAKED OUT!!! So what do they do... they go and wake up Jesus, who is STILL sleeping. Now, why did they go wake Jesus up? What did they think He was going to do? According to the account found in Matthew 8:23ff, the disciples cried out to Jesus, "Lord, save us! We are going to drown!" You get the sense, that there was some sort of faith or hope that Jesus could do something... they had seen Him do miracles unlike anyone else. Perhaps, this was a situation He could handle as well. And handle it He did. The text says, "He replied, 'You of little faith, why are you so afraid?' Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm." Why does Jesus refer to the disciples for having "little faith" in this moment? I mean, didn't they come and wake Jesus up...seems to me there was definitely faith present. The thing is, I don't believe Jesus was referring to lack of faith in Him to handle the situation. I don't even believe it had to do with the impending fear they had of drowning. I believe it has more to do with the fact that Jesus has continued to share with His disciples what must happen to Him. That the Son of Man must suffer and be handed over to the chief priests and must die. This particular situation out on the boat, was far from the scenario that He had been sharing with them. God has raised Jesus up with a purpose, and there was no way Jesus was going to die in a storm on a boat in the middle of the lake, when there was still work that needed to be done, and so that the prophecies would be fulfilled. Isaiah never once uttered, "and I saw Him lying in a boat, and the sky was dark, with winds encircling the vessel, and then it capsized with no one around to help..." No, this was not yet the time. This is how Jesus could sleep so sound in the stern of the boat. He had faith and assurance that this was not the time nor the place for His life to end. So when you are faced with a "life storm", and believe me, you will be. Rest assured that God still holds all things in HIS hands. There is truly nothing to fear, if you are a child of God, there is always HOPE for after the storm. No matter how ugly, violent, raging the storm may be, God is that solid foundation we can count on to give us a firm footing so that our faith may not be shaken and that whatever the outcome of the storm... God may still be praised.

Pastor Warren

Been married to my beautiful wife 18 years, and God has blessed us with the gift of 3 wonderful boys. We have ministered in Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and now Iowa. God continues to demonstrate His goodness everyday.